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El Mural OlvidadoBy Elia Alegria The beauty of Los Angeles consists of so much culture. One example commonly seen is mural art on the walls of our city. This picture that I took was in Little Tokyo. You can see a mural of a Mexican man with clouds at his back. You can see diagonal lines intersecting in the mural, directing your eye toward the subject. The man's hands are pointed outward as if asking for redemption. The mural is located at the back of the building where it can hardly be seen. To make matters worse, in front of the mural, covering the bottom, is a beat-up fence with wooden boards up against it. There is one that is tagged up with gang names, and the boards were left there as if forgotten. The apartment building is not well taken care of, and the mural of the man just adds to the scene of abandonment, as if asking "Why?" Cultures meet through art. In the picture, you see a mural of a Mexican man. In a city that is heavily populated with Hispanic individuals, it is not uncommon to come across a mural or two on your way to the supermarket. Through art, different cultures express their points of view. The Mexican culture paints various depictions of Jesus, in this case, with the sombrero on his head representing a halo. In this photograph, though, the mural is an example of forgotten art, of how we become ignorant and say, "It's just another mural." It might be common, but it doesn't lessen the cultural value it contains. Many represent their beliefs and expectations of the world, and we become oblivious to the true meaning that the mural has. In the Hispanic culture, this mural represents the faith we have in not only each other but also in our people as a whole. |